One of the biggest challenges that USA Fencing faces is making national events work for everyone. The USFA has to meet many objectives, which sometimes contradict each other. For example, how to make NACs profitable, controllable in size, predictable in advance in schedule, easily plannable in resources, and so on. The number of complaints that USA Fencing faces each time it publishes the National Events schedule or changes event format or requirements, events composition, and daily schedule is often unsurmountable. I don’t envy the USFA for dealing with this – it’s difficult to satisfy many constituents (parents, tournament officials, fencers, clubs, coaches, venue providers, etc.) when their desires differ.
After careful thinking, I have one suggestion that could fix the National Events. I hope the new board, which starts its term on September 1, 2024, will consider my proposal.
What this proposal achieves:
- Create a controlled and defined size for every event at any National level tournament
- Ability to create daily and hourly schedules for all events at every National tournament for the entire season at the beginning of the season
- Ability to have a clear plan for official hiring for every National level tournament or the entire season at the beginning of the season
- Clear and well-defined qualification path for every national event
- Ability to leverage existing Regional tournament format and their organization without any change
- Ability to leverage existing tournament registration database with minimal change for National Tournaments
- Ability to fully predict, plan, and execute hotel allocation at the beginning of the season for the entire season
- Clear communication to all constituents – fencers, families, clubs, coaches, officials, vendors, etc.
- Ability to help families save a lot of money on travel and lodging and help with event attendance planning. The savings will also be for clubs and coaches, as well as allow the clubs advanced planning for operations during the national tournaments.
- Lastly, USA Fencing will ultimately earn much more money and have much better control over expenses, resulting in higher revenue and bigger profit from National events.
This is just a short list of financial/planning advantages that I foresee if this proposal is implemented. Many additional advantages fall under the category of competitiveness improvement, which will be clarified toward the end of the proposal.
New National Tournament Format
- At the beginning of each season, USA Fencing, via the Tournament Committee, forecasts the desired event cap for all events at every National Tournament for the entire season. This cap is based on historical data and the current season enrollment analysis. These caps are specific for each weapon/age/gender. For example, at the Junior Olympics, this cap can be 400 JME, 400 JMF, 300 JWF, 250 JWE, 300 JMS, 180 CWS, etc.
- USA Fencing can know its demographics as soon as the end of August of each season. To encourage fencers to renew their membership on time and thus provide reliable data, the incentive can be either a discount to renew the USA membership (or upgrade) if done by August 1st, or some fine (for example, double upgrade/renewal fees) if done later than August 31st. This will guarantee with high accuracy that all existing USA Fencing members renew their membership and that their demographics (region, age, weapon, club, etc.) are known.
- Based on these demographics, the USFA will know the number of fencers in each segment (age/weapon/gender) for each region. For example, the USFA will know how many Y10/12/14/Cadet/Junior/Senior Men’s/Women’s Epee/Foil/Sabre fencers reside in each region.
- During the season, several Regional events, RYCs, RJCC, and ROC (Div1A, Div2, Vet), will be held in each region to precede National events and serve as prerequisites for them. For the first two National events (October and November NAC), the previous season’s Regional points can count.
- With each event’s cap established, the number of qualified participants from each region is proportional to the size of this segment in this region.
- The regular fee deadline freezes the Regional Point list for this National event. Each participant enters with a ‘Pending’ status. Based on the proportional number of participants from each region, these pending participants are approved after the deadline. The rest of the registered fencers are placed on a waiting list. If withdrawal happens, a first fencer from the region of the withdrawn fencer is approved.
- A certain number of participants might automatically qualify for each event. For example, the top N people on the national point list for this segment and Y people from abroad. This number can be different for each weapon/age/gender. Pre-qualified fencers are excluded from the regional list.
- After the registration deadline, USA Fencing can increase the cap for one event if another event is underbooked.
- No defined number of points is required for qualification; only the size of the qualifying field from each Region and the fencer’s position at the regular entry deadline define qualification.
Example of How This Works (for people who love math)
Suppose USA Fencing set a cap for 210 fencers in Div1A Men’s Epee for Summer Nationals based on the previous year’s numbers. Let’s assume that in Region 1, there are N Div1A Men who fence epee. In Region 2, there are twice such men, and so on, and in Region 6, there are six times more of such fencers (these numbers are ‘invented’ only for explanation and do not reflect the actual situation).
Proportional to the segment size in each region means the following:
Based on Regional points, there will be X fencers from Region 1, 2X from Region 2, …, and 6X from Region 6, totaling 210 fencers, because this is proportional to the number of fencers in each region in this segment (Div1AME). The Tournament Committee calculates the number of qualifiers from each region and publishes it at the beginning of the season. Here’s how they calculate it.
A simple mathematical formula shows:
X+2X+3X+4X+5X+6X=210 ⇒ 21X=210 ⇒ X=10
This means that 10 people will qualify from Region 1, 20 will qualify from Region 2, 30 will qualify from Region 3, and so on, with 60 who qualify from Region 6 for Div1A Men’s Epee event at the upcoming Summer Nationals. This is proportionate to the size of this specific segment in the region.
So, the first 10 Div1A Men’s Epee fencers from Region 1 on the Div1A Points list will qualify for the Summer Nationals, the first 20 Div1 Men’s Epee fencers from Region 2 on the Div1A Points list will qualify, and so on, and the first 60 fencers from Region 6 on the Div1A point list will qualify for this upcoming Summer Nationals.
How This Addresses Each Item Above
Based on the above proposal, it is easy to see all the promises I made at the beginning of this blog are kept. To summarize, let’s examine each point:
- Controlled size of each event: with the established cap, specified graduation from the waitlist, and the ability to increase one event in case another event is underbooked, USA Fencing has full control over the NAC size before the season starts.
- Daily schedule – since all National events are known in their size, USA Fencing can create and optimize daily schedules for every National event for the entire season
- For the same reason, USA Fencing will know the requirements on the number of the officials. Referees can be pre-hired and developed in advance.
- The qualification path is well known: a fencer should participate in Regional tournaments, earn points, and finish among an allocated number of fencers for this segment in her/his region.
- The regional tournaments have not changed—they are conducted the same way they run now, and points are awarded the same way.
- There are very few and relatively easy modifications to the National Tournament registration. The major difference is how fencers move from ‘Pending’ to ‘Approved’ status and graduate from the Waitlist based on the pre-defined number of regional qualifiers. Automating this change at the initial stage is not mandatory, as the same can be achieved via manual approval.
- The ability to fully predict everything is obvious from the process description.
- Communication is also straightforward – the numbers for each segment/region can be announced at the beginning of each season, and the qualification process is very well defined.
- With a known daily schedule, families can plan their trip well ahead of time, which results in much cheaper travel options and easier family planning (school, work), thus saving significant money for each participant.
- Similarly, USA Fencing has full control over the size of the events, can predict revenues and expected expenses, and saves money due to advanced planning and purchasing for its officials. Based on the size of the rented venues each season, USA Fencing can also change the caps accordingly to better fit the venue characteristics.
The importance of regional events will significantly grow since it will not be enough just to get regional points. Each fencer must fight for their position on the regional point list, increasing the region’s competitiveness.
Some low-attendance events, such as Veteran events, can be left unchanged; since the numbers don’t drastically change the situation, every fencer on the regional point list can participate.
There are many more advantages of this new tournament format.
This is just a first draft proposal; many ideas can be modified and improved. I aim to show how we can utilize existing infrastructure and provide reasonable and workable solutions to such important issues as the National Events Tournament Format.
Even without modifications to existing infrastructure, this initial draft can work immediately, starting from this season’s second half or for some events (for example, the Junior Olympics). The tournament software should change nothing to start this pilot—everything can be done manually!
Again, I call on the new board members to seriously consider this proposal and for the fencing community members to comment.
Together, we can make the USA Fencing National Tournaments better!
You wrote “Create a controlled and defined size for every event at any National level tournament”
Return to 32- or 128-fencer events that can be run in any hotel ballroom with reduced staff, yielding cost reductions on my fronts with fewer scheduling conflicts